Your live show may be great just the way it is – you hand a CD of instrumentals to the club DJ and he plays it while you rap over it. That’s all well and good but having your own DJ amplifies your show at least tenfold. The DJ can help read the crowd, change up your show on the fly with you and add little quirks that make your set much more polished. Go to any show and it’s a guarantee the best sets will come from the rappers with their own DJs. Easily.

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Dope list David D… one hunnid. Might I add a #9 and #10 since we’re close enough to it anyway…

#9 A “Money Man” aka Trustworth & Qualified Accountant.

All these rap cats go broke for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is not having someone who (1) can keep an eye on your money (2) help ensure your bills get paid—especially to Uncle Sam (3) knows what a Savings Account is.

Best believe Jay-Z got him a Money Man/Men/Women on his team…

#10 An Outsider

The outsider doesn’t have squat to do with the industry. The outsider has their own job and doesn’t depend on you for so much as a nickel or a backstage pass. The Outsider is your break from the business.

Everybody got 1 person in their life that don’t understand their job, don’t know nobody who has their kinda job… and you know why you keep that person in your life? Cuz it’s nice to not have to deal with that stuff around them.

#11 Someone Of Faith.

Maybe it’s a pastor. Maybe it’s your Auntie from Down Souf… But somebody who’ll hold you to a super high moral standard when everybody including your “No Man” caves and goes along with all your BS.

Somebody need to remind you Jesus is watching.

#12 A Culture Mentor

Rapper, Singer, Guitarist… whatever you are, you need to know somebody who is not only better at it than you, but who’s been around longer than you so they can constantly hip you to what came before you.

Cat biting Kool Keith and too young and dumb to know who Black Elvis is so they think they came up with something new… How you gonna blaze new trails when don’t nobody in your crew know enough to tell you that your ass is running in place?

Aight that was 4 additions… but you knew folk was gon’ do this anyway, right? LOL.

And this is why I retired. I could never get all this going at the same time. Everybody always has their own thing going on. The most important thing to remember is everybody on your team has to be dedicated to the team.

No rapper ever blows up by himself. People don’t realize all that goes on behind the scenes and how many people it takes to make that work. If everybody isn’t full committed (which is hard, because it’ll seem like they’re being groupies or whatever, but that’s what makes these guys who come out seem so special, they got 5-10 guys behind ‘em just pushing that one guy out in front) it won’t work.

#14 Weed Carrier/”I’ll take the charge as long as you pay for my lawyer” nigga

Too many rappers are getting knocked on drug/gun charges. They need that one nigga in the crew who’s bout that life to the extent that he isn’t scared of going to jail, but not dumb enough to start fights in the club. You just need a dude who will hold your weed and if the cops come knocking, he’ll eat the charge.

Music videos extend the life of your song and keep your visibility up.

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I think this is debatable. Yea, a great video gets everyone talking and garners youtube hits. But, I think this best serves the younger fans. If you’re 25+, do you watch music videos multiple times? The last video I’ve seen multiple times was “Empire State of Mind”. My 106 & Park days are looooooong gone lol

Unfortunately most of these people have a career of their own they are trying to start as well and its hard working for free when you know you create a professional product. IE. Photograpger, graphic designer, DJ.

I think what is important is finding value in the people around you & respecting their processes if you want to work with them. Being sensitive of how other creatives work and having a manager coordinate these talents/timetables for you is also helpful. Of course no one wants to work for free, but there are other ways of working with talented folks who would be willing to take on a reduced rate. In my case as a graphic designer, I’d want to see that you have talent, are putting in the legwork to grow your brand, you treat people with respect, and are willing to give me creative freedom w/o nitpicking my type selection or anything else. My headline type is hand illustrated anyway…

THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS ARTICLE!!! As a graphic designer who has many friends/contacts/acquaintances that are trying to break out in the rap game, I find it MEGA-FRUSTRATING to see people try to front w/ bullshit branding work. No one’s gonna listen to your stupid mixtape if it looks like your moron cousin laid it out in Photoshop! I know you just hired him bc he was your cousin and he was FREE. You get what you pay for fool!

cats don’t understand that the look of a project can make or break it a lot of times. There’s so much material out there, proper artwork and such can make or break by making your stuff stand out, for better or worse.

I really appreciluv this post caws it fortifies the elements needed for my team to strive forward, the real life engineer (who’s affordable-yet still good) is one of the key ingredients missing to make my equation add up. Also the entertainment lawyer as added by Black Canseco. Got some more team building to do, Thanks David! Blessed n keep on the look out for Dilinga Movements http://www.reverbnation.com/dilingamovements

Long time lurker here (since before uproxx). This is a great post. These types of posts are what keeps me coming back to this site day in day out. Keep it up. I’m tryna do my thing here in San Diego, CA, and the biggest drawback for me is how hip hop (and music in general) is a business. You said it; The rapper has to be a CEO. And that sucks cuz I wanna be about the music and the people that enjoy it.